The Lebanon City Council, at its Sept. 13 meeting, approved an intergovernmental agreement between the city and the Lebanon Community School District for outdoor facility maintenance.
According the agreement, LCSD will pay the city $100,000 to mow, weed and provide general aesthetic upkeep for schools that are within the city limits and the district office.
In addition to the $100,000 annual fee, the district will provide materials, including bark, mulch, fertilizer and chemicals.
The district also provided the city with a lawnmower, trailer and other landscaping equipment.
City staff started maintenance on some district properties in the summer, said Jason Williams, maintenance operations director.
The agreement will allow the city to hire another full-time maintenance person, Williams said.
Mayor Paul Aziz asked how it would affect the city financially and structurally.
“We gain another full time employee that we can use in other areas,” said City Manager Gary Marks.
Councilor Jason Bolen asked about the stability of the new position.
“Is that employee tied to this contract year to year?” Bolen asked.
He asked if there was any risk of the district finding a new low bid, leaving the city without that $100,000.
There’s always a risk that one party or another will want to move in a different direction, Marks said.
“I feel with the rate of growth we’re seeing in our community and the needs that we have internally, even if the school district were to back out in a year or two or three, I think that our ability to continue to fund that position is going to be there anyway,” he said.
Marks sees the agreement as a way to add a new position a few years earlier than the city would.
The agreement states that the city and school district will meet “periodically to review the actual costs associated with the work” in the agreement.
Extensions or renewals of the agreement will be “based on negotiations based on the actual costs” of providing the service.